The present invention relates to desoldering equipment and, more particularly, to a desoldering tool employing a solder collection tray with a disposable liner and replacable major components.
Desoldering equipment is employed, among other reasons, to remove electrical components from circuit boards or the like. The prior art has developed numerous different types of desoldering tools which typically include a source of heat, a source of vacuum and a reservoir for solder. These prior art tools suffer from one or more of the following disadvantages: insufficient power or overpower, so that removal of an element from a board is quite difficult, or the board is damaged; the tool becomes hot to the hand of the operator, and often they are cumbersome and awkward to use; and, most importantly, the tools are usually difficult to maintain and remove accumulated solder and resin therefrom. Specifically, flux, resin and solder tend to accumulate inside the tool and reduce collection passage sizes, as well as fouling the collection chamber and vacuum source.